Tints of the Soul
by theBrillianceofNight
Summary: Rewrite of "Journey": Riku Tomoko is your average kunoichi. Sad backstory, precise chakra control- every shinobi has these things, she isn't that special. The special ones are her teammates: kekkei-genkais, false identities, dark curses and legendary titles? And then there's Tomoko, who cannot even mold elemental chakra. So she does what she does best: she adapts.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I do not own Naruto. I am not Masashi Kishimoto._

_The rating is for cursing and blood, so please be aware of this._

_Thank you and enjoy!_

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><p>1<p>

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><p>Scowling slightly, Riku Tomoko deftly packed a messenger bag full of supplies. She fumbled for a moment with a zipper before realizing it was caught on the fabric of one of her shirts. She mouthed a few choice curses, yanking on it a couple of times in frustration, hoping it would come undone by itself. When no such thing occurred, she hurled it across the room, running a hand through her messy black hair and seething quietly.<p>

"Tomoko? Is something wrong?" The voice echoed from across the hall and through her half-opened door.

Tomoko sprawled across her bed face-first, burying her face in the quilt.

"Tomoko?" The voice's owner poked her head into Tomoko's room, pushing light blue hair out of her face. "Why are you trying to suffocate yourself?"

Tomoko groaned, rolling over. "My bag is dead," she answered.

Spotting the bag in a corner, Tomoko's companion walked over to it and began to fiddle with the zipper. A few moments later, the zipper was free and working perfectly.

"Your bag is alive," the zipper-fixer declared, tossing the bag onto the bed.

Tomoko wheezed when it landed heavily on her stomach, hugging the pack to herself childishly.

"Gah. Curse you, Nanami Mayumi," she huffed without any real intent behind her words.

Nanami Mayumi, better known as 'Yumi' to her friends, sat down next to Tomoko on the bed.

"So," she said softly, "this is it. This is really it."

Tomoko sat up and leaned against Yumi's shoulder, nudging her slightly with her elbow.

"Yeah. Are you nervous?"

At that, Yumi snorted. "Nervous? Fuck no. Just—nostalgic, is all. I'm just not sure if I'll ever see this place again."

Tomoko scoffed. "What, you think you're gonna die?"

Yumi snickered. "Not likely. But if we do advance, we may be required to leave all this behind and start fresh if we get recruited to different sectors."

"And then we'd be split up," Tomoko added, voicing aloud Yumi's worry.

"Yeah."

They sat in somber stillness for a few minutes, until Yumi yelped shrilly, abruptly breaking the silence.

"What was that for?" she hissed, guarding her sensitive sides from Tomoko's sharp elbow.

"You were being depressing and weird."

Yumi stared at her friend before breaking into laughter.

"Finish packing your bag," she commanded.

"Yes ma'am!" Tomoko replied with a mock salute.

Yumi left the room, shaking her head. She went down the hallway to the next doorway, peeking in and coming face to face with the room's occupant, who had been about to exit.

She stared owlishly at the boy's uncomfortably close face until the situation completely registered, then she jumped back with a shriek, face aflame.

The boy was in no better state as he leapt away, sputtering.

"Cat got your tongue, Warami?" a blond-haired boy remarked coolly, passing through the hallway.

"Deki," Tomoko called warningly from down the hallway.

"Fuck you, Shimi," Warami Washi spat.

"Not interested," Shimi Hideki replied.

"Next time, you should try 'go fuck yourself,'" another teammate suggested, approaching the room.

"Shut up, Kaida," Washi grumbled, tossing a knapsack at her.

"Ooh, is it let's-chuck-stuff-at-Kaida time?" Kaida remarked, carelessly dropping the bag on the floor.

"Sou Kaida, you better not drop _this_," Yumi warned, handing her friend a large bag.

Deki nodded his appreciation as his pack changed hands.

Tomoko brought her backpack with her as she came down the hall and thanked Kaida as the bag was put at the blonde's feet with the others.

"Where's Kazu?" Tomoko wondered aloud.

Deki shrugged.

"How should I know?" Yumi muttered, crossing her arms.

Tomoko groaned.

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><p>Nisi Kazuyuki was having a wonderful dream. He had just discovered an ancient artifact that would give him an endless supply of power, and he had brought it home and was being worshipped by throngs of pretty girls.<p>

"Kazu," one of them crooned. "Wake up," she enticed.

Another one caressed his shoulder insistently. "Now," she purred.

The first female smiled in adoration. "Seriously, before I disembowel you."

Her words and tone of voice were befit that of a scowl, and the incongruity launched Kazu straight out of his wonderful dream and back into the world of the awake.

"Nice to see that you're awake, Sleeping Beauty," Tomoko greeted, voice laden with sarcasm.

"Oops," Kazu answered sheepishly.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Why aren't you up yet?"

"Huh?"

Yumi then entered and grabbed Kazu roughly by the collor of his shirt, quite literally dragging him out of bed and down the hall before he could properly react in his sleep-muddled confusion.

Tomoko eyed the glass sitting innocently on his bedside table with suspicion. She ran a finger along the inside and set it briefly on her tongue before her eyes widened with realization.

"Washi?" she called sweetly.

"Yeah?"

"You get to carry the scroll for as long as Kaida sees fit."

"What? Why?" Washi protested.

"For lacing Kazu's water with sedative."

"Oh," Washi said.

After a rather caustic dressing-down from Yumi, Washi shouldered the large scroll that Kaida had sealed all of their supplies into.

The group of six exited their house and gathered around the gates of their village, listening intently to last-minute instructions on their mission objectives.

Tomoko chanced a glance back at her home in the seconds before departure, gravitating towards Kazu and Deki and away from the other three.

Then as the gatekeepers pulled apart the gates, she exited through the arch with the same symbol as the metal strip on the band around her waist.

Racing through the treetops alongside her cohorts, Tomoko left behind her home under the cover of the thick mist her village was named for.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: I still don't own the Naruto franchise. This is a work for fun and to procrastinate from homework._

_Enjoy!_

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><p>2<p>

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><p>Tomoko let her arms hang behind her as she darted from branch to branch, finding pathways through the foliage-bare mid-level branches of gigantic trees.<p>

She could sense Deki's presence immediately behind her, although she could hear nothing from him and his chakra was suppressed. A bit farther back, Kazu was keeping pace. Deki would only travel so far from Kazu, and Tomoko would not go ahead without her team. Tomoko led the way, Kazu regulated their speed, and Deki was the link between them.

Yumi, Kaida, and Washi had their own system, because although they were the same age and shared lodgings, shinobi trained in three-man squads.

On standard missions requiring long-distance travel, Shimi Hideki, Nisi Kazuyuki, and team-leader Riku Tomoko (Squad Thirteen) would clump together closely, with Deki slightly ahead, Kazu bringing up the rear, and Tomoko in between. Deki navigated and used his unique sensory skills. Kazu had fast reflexes to protect from behind, and Tomoko was a specialist in genjutsu.

That was the reason they were a team; Kazu's focus was taijutsu, Tomoko's was genjutsu, and Deki was sensory but expertly gathered information.

Sou Kaida and Warami Washi made up Squad Twelve, led by Nanami Mayumi. Washi would lead, Kaida would protect from the back, and Yumi stayed in the middle. Kaida was practiced at handling all manner of weaponry, Washi was capable of some genjutsu but was especially good with stealth measures, and Yumi possessed a kekkei-genkai that was nearly extinct.

Squad Thirteen was a well-balanced all-around team, versatile and good for just about any mission. On the other hand, Squad Twelve's eclectic gathering of abilities made them perfect for more specialized missions, but their diverse skill set also allowed them to perform a very wide range of duties.

For larger missions, however, they travelled as a team of six; on missions such as this current one, their two teams combined to mesh Squad Twelve's expertise with Squad Thirteen's versatility. They trained together regularly, and so they all were familiar with the skills and habits of the others in their group.

They would travel in somewhat of a line, with Deki and Washi leading. While Deki and Washi bore much animosity towards each other, they took missions very seriously and collaborated well. After Deki and Washi came Tomoko, both for her genjutsu and because she could reprimand Deki and Washi if things ever got out of hand. While Yumi would have been the ideal person for Tomoko's position, Deki, Washi, and Yumi clashed when separate from the larger group, even with the dangers of missions hanging overhead. After Tomoko came Kaida and Yumi, whose multi-range styles of fighting ensured defense as well as a counter-attack in the event of an assault from any side. Kazu came last because of his reflexes and close-range taijutsu, and so their team coordinated smoothly.

On this occasion, though, Tomoko was leading with Deki and Kazu behind, and Yumi was matching step for step with Tomoko, Washi was parallel to Deki, and Kazu kept pace with Kaida. Tomoko, although a rather unreliable guide in normal circumstances, was able to lead because she could best sense the chakra signatures of the group ahead of them.

Squads Twelve and Thirteen were not alone on this mission; this mission included nearly all the genin of their village.

This mission included travelling across half of one continent, crossing a large expanse of water, then crossing borders and trekking through the forests of another country. On the way they'd be threatened by bandits, rogues, thieves, assassins, predators, natural wonders with a taste for human flesh, and all manner of trials.

But if they succeeded in the mission, it would be well worth it.

They would advance a level, be assigned more difficult and specialized missions, collect a higher paycheck, and earn an increased amount of respect.

They might join twelve-year-olds, adults, and many kinds of people in the next step of their careers, the next goal in their lives.

If they were triumphant, they would rise to chῡnin status.

And so, they would not fail.

This was their second day of travel, and they were nearing the coastline. Shaking herself out of her reverie, Tomoko turned her head momentarily to check that she was still even with Yumi. As a result of that split-second lapse in surveillance, she stumbled over a tripwire and went plummeting towards the ground.

She closed her eyes against leaves and the wind, reaching for her ninja pouch.

Tomoko had ten seconds before she would hit the ground hard.

_Nine._ She grabbed some wire of her own.

_Eight._ She looped an end around a branch as she passed, hoping it would slow her down.

_Seven._ She slipped the wire around her wrapped forearm, ignoring the sharp pain of the wire beginning to cut into her skin.

_Six._ She slowed down slowly but surely.

_Five_. She wasn't slow enough.

_Four._ She gathered her chakra.

_Three._ She waited.

_Two._

_One._

She tucked and rolled as the ground came up sickenly fast, using the chakra to sever the wire so she could move unhindered and disperse the shock of hitting the ground.

Tomoko used the inertia of her roll to bring herself up into a defensive stance as she heard laughter, bringing a hand to her pouches to mentally take stock of her supplies. She'd used a twenty-foot bundle of her normal wire, so she had only two bundles of that and three bundles of chakra-proof wire. She had twenty-three shuriken, eleven kunai, fifteen paper bombs, thirty-one senbon, and an assortment of miscellaneous items. She was uninjured but for the cut in her forearm that was beginning to bleed, and her team was sure to be on its way.

Gathering chakra in her hands, Tomoko crouched down and pressed her palm against the forest floor. She dispersed her chakra in a net until she could feel the tremors of wind in the trees and small animals on the ground. She closed her eyes, extending her hearing to reach the places her chakra could not.

She stood up, keeping the net connected by her feet. Tomoko stiffened indiscernibly at the vibrations that came shaking down tree trunks as a result of careless tramping on the upper branches.

Down another thick trunk came the lightest quiver of cat-like feet slipping deftly from perch to perch. She turned her back to that tree, sensing a nearing chakra presence that did not travel by ground.

Tomoko opened her eyes, looking up into the foliage. Her eyes could see little through the dense leaves, but her chakra told her something was approaching.

Sure enough, a glint of metal shone in the darkness, and Tomoko sent off a single senbon. There was a loud noise as the thug, male according to his weight and build, crashed through branches and landed heavily on the ground, sending shockwaves through Tomoko's chakra net.

He stumbled unsteadily to his feet, and silhouettes came forth out of the darkness. Tomoko had a hard time counting the footsteps that trod heavily upon her net; they were terribly unskilled, but their brute force and sheer numbers might overwhelm her if she wasn't careful.

The man she'd knocked down swung a heavy club in his hands. His face was twisted by scars and his smile was unpleasantly crooked.

His grin widened at her quick examination and analysis.

"You're gonna regret that, kid."


	3. Chapter 3

3

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><p>Tomoko's hand crept to the pouch around her thigh, and she slowly pulled out a kunai, hoping fervently that she would be able to avoid battle.<p>

"That's an awfully sharp knife ya got there, kid. Careful, ya might hurt yerself again," the brute jeered, jerking his head toward Tomoko's bleeding forearm. She put the kunai's handle between her teeth, then reached for the identifying forehead protector around her waist, pulling it up slightly so that she could access the knot to the sash slung across her hips. She deftly undid the knot and pulled the sash free with a sweeping motion. She took the kunai back into hand and smiled tightly. "So are ya gonna come easily or are we gonna hafta do this the hard way?"

"Why don't you leave me alone, and I don't hurt you?"

The thug shook his head with a grin, swinging the club back and forth a few times before holding up an open hand. "Wrong answer, kid." He grinned again and waved forward the attack.

It was just as well that he didn't see Tomoko's darkly amused smirk.

The first row of men charged forward. Tomoko stood, biding her time, and as they came upon her, she dropped onto one hand and one leg, holding the sash tightly against her chest and spinning into a full leg sweep. The first wave went down and the second group rushed her.

Tomoko pushed her chakra across the net and imagined that the grass became a snare. The second wave fell to the ground, grass blades wrapped around their ankles.

Then the next few closest rows collapsed due to Tomoko's own brand of genjutsu. The farthest were decimated by unseen attacks from the trees.

Then right from the thickest part of the crowd, thugs were picked up and thrown by the _trees themselves_. In the confusion, no one noticed three figures drop silently from above, slipping into the crowd and knocking out men before sliding into another clump and taking them out too.

Tomoko darted behind a pair of thugs and tossed the sash up and around, hooking it around their necks. The heavy weighted beads doubled as a chain, and Tomoko pulled until the men collapsed. She whipped the sash back around, catching another rogue in the face with the dense metal beads. Flipping backwards out of the path of a mace, she caught a glimpse of white out of the corner of her eye. She dropped into another leg-sweep, and when she stood up, she found herself back-to-back with Deki.

"How many are there?" she asked, ducking beneath a kick.

"Lots," Deki grunted, batting aside a punch and countering with a solid right hook.

Tomoko linked her arms with Deki's and bent forward, spinning. Deki straightened his legs, and together, they cleared a small area.

"Who's next?" Deki called dismissively, pulling on his gloves. Tomoko wisely backed away, keeping a moderate distance between her teammate and their attackers.

Then a hand grabbed Tomoko's elbow, a whispered "Sycamore" registered, and Tomoko disappeared into the crowd.

"Update?"

"The targets are becoming more and more skilled as time progresses," Deki told her, wincing at the rush of chakra that informed him that his water clone had been dispelled. "Yumi's got one, so we need to interrogate him."

Tomoko nodded silently.

They came upon a clearing, and the thug was tied to a tree with Yumi circling around him. At the sight of Deki and Tomoko, she nodded, and Deki returned to the fight.

Approaching the man tied to the tree, Tomoko catalogued his attire and his expression. The fabric was of a rather fine quality, and yet the calluses on his hands proved he did heavy labor for a living. Just who was he working for?

"Who is paying you?" Tomoko asked, getting straight to the point as her thought process dictated. Her mark remained tight-lipped, and Tomoko smiled. She'd been hoping for a chance to try some new techniques.

"Pass me a senbon," she directed to Yumi while keeping her full attention on the man.

Yumi hurled it carelessly at Tomoko's back. An inch away, a stalk of grass shot out of the ground and caught it, as though a hand curled around it. The nail file hovered in midair for a moment in the grasp of the grass, and then Tomoko reached behind herself and took it into hand, pulling a spoon out of her hip pouch.

Holding them up, she grinned. "So _who_ is paying you?"

A badly muffled scream echoed from the trees and the rogues stiffened. Deki took this into stride as he fought alongside Washi.

"Hey, Shimi—is that Tomoko?"

Deki nodded. "Where's Kazu?"

"Don't know. Last I saw, he was with Kaida."

Grunting an excuse, Deki took off into the trees in search of his teammate. A moment later, Washi caught up.

"The morons are running away."

"Get lost, Warami."

But with his hands, Deki pointed in the direction of the grove where Tomoko and Yumi were.

"Jerk," Washi spat, but he nodded slightly and took off, so Deki knew he understood.

_Hey!_

Deki paused by a clump of underbrush, looking as though he was listening intently and burning through his chakra in an attempt to catch the words.

_Under the bushes!_

Kazu.

_You just passed us._

Kaida.

Deki backtracked a few steps as the words grew more intense in his mind. Then he pushed back a few branches and found himself looking at Kazu and Kaida. Kaida yanked him forward while Kazu rearranged the foliage.

"They passed this way, but it seems like they're coming back," Kaida whispered.

Kazu handed a soldier pill to Deki, and he took it with a nod, grateful for the chakra replenishment.

"Warami is with the others," he informed his comrades.

"Why are they attacking us?"

Like Tomoko, Deki had noted the fine cloth and the callused worker's hands. However, unlike Tomoko, Deki had also noticed the small insignia belonging to a very particular supplier of textiles. That, combined with the man's weathered skin and type of footwear, cemented Deki's suspicions of the man's employer.

But that was where the issue lay, for while he had a few colleagues of the same employment, many other men were being paid by many other hirers.

So the better question was not who was paying them to attack, but why they were all attacking the same group at the same time, and why the rest of their own group had vanished.

Deki's eyes widened in realization, and he grabbed Kaida and Kazu, filling them in on his discovery.

The faint sound of water splashing supported Deki's suspicions.

Simultaneously, the three genin brought their hands together in a Release handsign and whispered, "Kai".


	4. Chapter 4

4

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><p>Opening her eyes slightly, Yumi noted the shadows on the ground. Silhouettes of Mist-nin danced across a wooden floor that rocked from side to side.<p>

"So _that__'__s_ how it is," mused Deki's voice.

Yumi felt a hand on her shoulder, but she recognized the chakra signature and opened her eyes, not bothering to acknowledge stoic Kaida.

She blinked a few times, taking in her surroundings methodically.

They were on a boat. In the middle of the ocean.

"WOAH. HOW DID WE GET HERE?"

Tomoko's voice carried from across the ship. Her words were followed by a yelp, a "Damn you, Washi," and Tomoko soon appeared in Yumi's line of sight, rubbing the back of her head.

Standing, Yumi went to the edge of the boat, watching the water pass by. And despite being in a genjutsu for an indeterminate amount of time, she felt powerful and _alive_, surrounded by so much water.

"Eight hours," Deki said as he approached. "We've been out for eight hours, on the boat for five. It was a location-triggered jutsu—as we neared the port, the genjutsu took hold. They loaded us up in the meantime."

"And the mist?"

"Facilitates the genjutsu. They're like clouds of chakra."

And that explained why Yumi felt so energized.

It had all started as a misunderstanding.

While Tomoko and the others had all been residents of the Mist village or the surrounding area for their whole lives, Yumi was from somewhere on the island, but was unsure of where exactly.

Her father became ensnared by illegal black market activity and had defected from the local shinobi force in order to protect Yumi and her mother. His plan backfired, and loan sharks and bounty hunters alike began to hunt him down.

Thus began a pattern of escape. Yumi had lived in more places than she could count using her fingers and her toes. "Lived" wasn't even a correct term—they'd stayed a week at most in each place until they reached Kiri.

For a girl whose family spent its time running away from the rest of the world, Kiri was a haven. In Kiri, no one claimed to be friendly. No children ran the streets happily, no neighbors came knocking. Yumi was used to lurking in the shadows, making sure no one could sneak up on her. Kiri, as a shinobi village, minded its own business. The village, whether the shinobi or civilian version, had learned to suspect anyone and everyone. In the same way, if anyone came investigating, no one claimed to know anything, and those passing through did so quickly.

Yumi's mother experienced civilian Kiri, where marketplaces were silent and the mist reduced visibility to the end of the block and no further.

Yumi's father hid in shinobi Kiri, where the rooftops were the main route of transportation and the mist was ideal for concealment.

In the meantime, Yumi shadowed the gray area in between. During the year they spent in Kiri, Yumi was finally able to properly hone her emerging bloodline trait. From impulsive and uncontrollable acts of desperation, Yumi could be in command of her own abilities.

And she met Deki, whose family had been murdered in the kekkei-genkai purges, and Washi, who avoided returning to his abusive home whenever possible. The three of them spent more and more time together as they met Kaida, Tomoko, and Kazu. Floating from house to house, they trained until it was an undisputed fact that they would go on to form a squad. Their perfect team cohesion and balanced proficiency in their craft guaranteed them a place with the best of the best.

They were training as per the usual the day everything changed.

Yumi was to tell her comrades that the time had finally come to go.

Washi's civilian father was in the hospital while his mother faced a court martial for abuse of her shinobi status.

Deki had forms to hand out for the official creation of their squad.

But a man emerged from the woods, claiming to be lost. He possessed a very slight amount of chakra, tagging him as a civilian.

By the time Washi noticed a shadow creeping up behind, it was too late.

They were missing for three days. Kazu and Tomoko eventually found them lying in the woods, a festering burn branded into the back of each neck.

Kazu ran to get help, while Tomoko patched up her fallen comrades. Cutting away Deki's shirt, she discovered a myriad of puncture wounds arranged in the same circular pattern as his burn. A quick scan of Washi and Yumi's bodies produced puncture marks as well. A clockwise spiral on Yumi's body, matching her burn, and a mirrored spiral spoiled Washi's skin, the same as the burn on his neck.

Kazu returned with aid, and the group rushed off to the hospital.

Searching the surrounding area, Tomoko found a single clue: a burnt patch of grass ringed with white flowers stained crimson.

A few weeks later, the three convalescing pre-genin emerged from the hospital to somber news.

While her father had disappeared, the bounty hunters and loan sharks continued to hunt Yumi and her mother.

Washi's father died in the hospital during his absence, and his mother had killed herself after receiving the news.

Deki's home had burned to the ground, turning his belongings to ash.

And they returned to society irrevocably changed.

Deki's high level of intelligence increased to genius level. The med-nin observing him in the Psych Ward also noted his ability to read minds from close range, but at the cost of his mental stability, robbing him of his conscience and yet preserving a ruthless and violent intellect.

Yumi gained the ability to absorb chakra, unconsciously siphoning it from all who tried to approach her. The price was her rationality when her chakra reserves were full, and she made impulsive decisions detrimental to her health. The med-nins temporarily kept her under control by rendering her unable to reach her full capacity of power.

Producing an excessive amount of energy, Washi virtually radiated chakra. It seeped out of his skin, burning all who came near while searing his chakra ducts and blistering his skin red as it forced its way out. Early attempts at suppressing his chakra output nearly killed Washi, as a reduced amount of chakra directly affected the function of his internal organs rather than the chakra that escaped his body.

While he could put his feelings aside, Deki could barely look Washi and Yumi in the eyes without a debilitating sense of failure and shame. Yumi and Washi's conditions were exacerbated by prolonged exposure to the other, as Yumi soaked up Washi's chakra, growing unstable, and Washi's body toiled to recover the difference.

The ideal team collapsed in on itself, bonds irreparable.

Medication eased physical symptoms, so Washi and Yumi were put with stoic, mediating Kaida into Squad Twelve.

Deki's superior chakra control meshed better with Kazu and Tomoko's chakra-conservative styles of combat. Thus, Squad Thirteen was formed, and an overhanging shadow existed on both teams.

Yumi smiled wryly as, like clockwork, Tomoko handed Deki his pill. Mirroring his movements, Washi and Yumi both popped back a capsule. Washi spared a moment to grimace as the chakra excretion became uncomfortably intense before the medication kicked in. Then he made his way over to Yumi, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Chakra mist—it's actually pretty soothing. It's not as easy for the chakra to leak out of me, and the coolness is nice too."

Yumi nodded, eyes sliding shut as the boat rocked back and forth.

"Yeah. My body has to take in the chakra at a much slower rate. It barely notices people through the chakra in the air."

She hummed quietly, Washi's hand a tether to keep her anchored in the world of the awake.


	5. Chapter 5

5

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><p>Kaida sighed inwardly. After they'd broken out of the genjutsu the boat ride had been calm and peaceful. Like all shinobi, she appreciated the reprieve. However, like all shinobi, Kaida was growing uneasy in the lack of things to do.<p>

She stood up, still keeping watch on her team. Yumi and Washi watched the water, standing at the side of the boat. Squad Thirteen was gathered together, talking quietly. Tomoko sat on the deck, Kazu leaned against the wall of the captain's cabin, and Deki stood with his back to the boat's prow.

Beginning to wish they'd fought for longer before dispelling the genjutsu, Kaida pulled out her katana, running through a few katas.

Kaida was known among her peers as Kiri's left-handed weapons mistress. She could handle nearly any type of weaponry with ease, and quickly became adept in using any new tool introduced to her— whether built for left hand dominancy or right. Her primary weapon was her katana. She kept its sheath strapped across her back with a belt running diagonally down her front. In combat, she kept the sheath upright for easy access over her right shoulder. When she wasn't fighting or expecting battle, she kept the belt loose and the katana hanging low on her back, accessible from waist level.

The katana was a family heirloom. It bore the kanji for "ice" on both the sheath and the blade itself, and the sword responded marvelously to anyone from the Sou clan, Kaida's clan.

Pausing, Kaida ran the flat of the blade across her palm, studying it for scratches. She nicked her thumb and watched in satisfaction as the kanji glowed white and the blade seemed to warm in anticipation of further bloodshed. She returned the blade to the sheath and pulled a scroll from the holster on her hip. The blood on her thumb stained the scroll, its chakra content releasing the storage seal. Her large spiked mace appeared, and she examined it for bloodstains.

After polishing it, Kaida noted motion from one of her teammates. She looked up to see Yumi's tensed figure. Tomoko stood up and Deki approached Kaida.

"Something is following us," Tomoko murmured, her voice carrying across the boat in the sudden eerie silence.

"The boat isn't moving anymore," Washi noted, and he tensed slightly at the sound of footsteps.

The captain walked across the deck towards them.

"We are approaching an unidentified watercraft. We're moving the other shinobi into the hull," he said in a low tone, "but the crew is proctoring."

Deki nodded. "We'll keep an eye out."

The captain returned to his station and Kaida turned to Yumi once the door closed behind him.

"Kazu, Kaida, you stay on deck," Yumi said, "and Washi and Deki will be at the prow and tail to keep an eye out."

"Yumi, go on deck where you'll be closer to water," Tomoko suggested.

Deki shook his head. "No, she needs to be up top where she can see all of the deck. You go with her."

Yumi launched herself upwards and Tomoko followed.

From the deck, Kaida's view was limited. She hefted the mace in her hands, but put it away after considering the deck's small area. Leaning back against the cabin wall, she waited.

Above the quiet hiss of waves hitting the boat, Tomoko began to hum. The low notes resonated as a thrumming in the boat's wooden structure, the high notes echoed through the chakra-mist. The mid tones created a simple, repetitive, eerie melody.

Kaida smiled slightly as the first dark shape on the horizon appeared, steadily growing larger and sharpening into the image of a ship with black flags raised.

Pirates.

Yumi took ahold of Tomoko's melody seamlessly, and Tomoko layered in a countermelody, harmonizing at some points and sounding dissonant notes at others. As the boats slowly approached from all sides, the volume of Tomoko and Yumi's song swelled. A peer to the right showed Washi tensed in anticipation for battle and another dusky blur in the fog. To her left, Deki pulled out his gloves with a soft rustling, eyes trained on yet another murky shape.

The first water vessel bumped into their own craft's prow and the humming seemed to come to an abrupt stop. Washi stayed where he was, not approaching foolhardily, but not retreating either, as Tomoko continued to vocalize, but at a lower register.

The sound of wet footsteps on the silent planks of the deck.

The murmur of ocean and Tomoko's quiet hum.

The first rogue-nin pirate slung himself aboard from the water, face covered by a rebreather. He stood up and faced Kaida, and she spared a glance upward to see the awing transformation as Tomoko's eyes shifted from grey to purple, the wood of the boat seeming to pulse in accordance with her heartbeats.

The pirate took his first step forward, and activity exploded across the boat's deck.

Kaida swung her katana back and forth, aiming to topple her victims overboard and leave foot space. Hitting a pirate with the flat of her blade, she groaned inwardly as he fell heavily onto the deck. Projectiles of ice rained down as Yumi covered for her so that she could flip the man overboard without being attacked.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kaida caught a blur of shadowy white-turned-gray launch itself upward. She jumped away as a wave of shuriken littered the deck, felling injured rogue water-nin.

She dodged left, struck right, tossed a few kunai to aid Washi, who was parallel to the deck, feet on the mast, and all the while, Tomoko's eerie song echoed.

Finally, _finally_, the hum expanded into actual words as Tomoko projected her voice through the mist, chanting her simple melody so that even the distant smudges of watercraft could hear. Kaida took one nin into a hold as Deki guarded the cabin door. Tomoko weaved her chakra through her words and completed the jutsu with a whisper.

It was a strange feeling, as always, when the atmosphere seemed to disappear momentarily. There was a split-second ringing in Kaida's ears before the man in her arms fell limp, and Tomoko's genjutsu held.

Joining her on deck, Yumi helped transport bodies back onto boats as Deki dictated.

"We could use your muscles right about now, Tomoko," Washi grunted, but the kunoichi gave no answer, straining to keep a mob in dreaming submission.

Kaida produced ropes and chains from her scrolls to tie each crew to their mast. Kazu slipped into the captain's cabin to relay information, and the boat began to move on.

Yumi and Washi jumped back up to the roof and stood on either side of Tomoko. Tomoko used Washi's excess chakra as Yumi converted the mist so Tomoko could use that also.

Still, her hands began to shake, so Kaida and Kazu each took an oar into hand, rowing to boost the boat's speed.

When Deki decided enough distance was between their boat and the battleground, when Tomoko could barely maintain a flow of chakra long enough to traverse the large distance and still sustain the jutsu, the wind picked up and caught the ship's sail.

Tomoko released the genjutsu and sank down, eyes fading from purple back to gray. Her hands shook from the chakra exhaustion and she struggled to remove a chakra-replenishing pill from her bag. She swallowed with a grimace and slid to the boat's main level. Kazu helped her down to the main deck, and within a few minutes, her shaking subsided. Kaida propped Tomoko up until she could stand on her own.

The crew emerged, and Squads Twelve and Thirteen aided in bringing their fellow Kiri-nin back to open air. The mist cloud continued to cloak the boat, muffling any glimpse of the pale oceanic sun.

Then the waiting began again.

Kaida sighed. The respite from boredom had been refreshing while it lasted, but as she looked over to a pale Tomoko, a chakra-burn reddened Washi, and a slightly green crewmate scrubbing up blood, she decided her team had had enough excitement for one day.


	6. Chapter 6

6

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><p>Kazu tensed each of his muscles in turn, sending a touch of chakra to the stiff ones to keep himself limber. To his left, Tomoko cracked her knuckles before leaning back against the side of the boat, watching with interest as more Kiri-nin awoke from the genjutsu. On Kazu's other side, Washi twirled a pencil between his fingers, stopping every once in a while to check off names as each shinobi awoke.<p>

So far, a little more than half of their shipload had dispelled and passed the genjutsu portion of their village's own qualification exams. Only an hour of water travel remained, and any who did not discover and dispel the jutsu before the boat docked would be taken straight home on the same vessel.

Kazu looked up and saw Deki standing a few feet in front of him, facing away from the boat side. In the slightly uneven distribution of weight in his stance, Kazu could tell that Deki wanted to go somewhere but could find no valid reason to go through with the action.

"Shimi," he called. His teammate turned around and nodded. "Where are our supplies?"

At the same time, he thought, _Where are you going?_

"Below deck," Deki answered aloud.

Kazu stood up with a stretch and a yawn. "Come with me."

They entered the cabin but took a sharp left, away from the ship's bridge and the captain's bedroom. A short stairwell took them down into the hull, and Kazu froze on the bottom stair upon seeing Yumi sleeping.

Kaida looked up with a blank expression, repolishing her katana as Deki smoothly slipped past Kazu and approached. Stooping, Deki pinned a badge to Yumi's outer layer, one that read "Nanami Mayumi," her full name.

Deki paused for a moment with his fingers hovering near a small white scar on Yumi's cheek, and Kaida's repetitive movements slowed to a stop. Her powerful, callused fingertips came up unhurriedly, purposefully, to brush against Deki's pale hand as it began to tremble.

Kazu backed up the stairs on silent feet.

Washi considered the badge in his hands, tossing it slightly to judge its weight. "Warami Washi," it read, but in hiragana rather than kanji for easier reading. Flipping it over, he cursed under his breath as the pin sprang open and sliced open his palm.

A hand reached out to take his, and Washi looked up in surprise.

"Be more aware," Kazu warned, rotating Washi's wrist to study the bloodied cut, heedless of the chakra-loaded smear of lifeblood against his skin that began to sizzle.

Washi withdrew his hand, pulling out a roll of gauze as Kazu sat down next to him. He tore a strip off of the roll to wipe away the blood. Sighing, he tossed the dirtied shred overboard and leaned back, paying no heed to the excess chakra that played across the surface of his skin as it seamlessly knitted the wound shut.

Washi did, however, notice the small burns on the tips of Kazu's fingers. He frowned.

"Here," he said, offering the gauze and rifling through his pack for the burn-relieve salve Tomoko compounded for him.

The gauze and tin slipped out of Kazu's blistered grip and Washi caught it with a chuckle.

"Let me help," he said needlessly, already reaching for Kazu's hand.

While rubbing ointment into Kazu's burns, Washi felt a sudden rush of chakra. Kazu gaped as a water dragon burst out of the sea behind Washi's back.

Each met the other's glance.

"Yumi," they grunted in unison, gauze and salve tucked away as they moved.

Kazu went first, inching down the stairwell until his eyes took in the disaster scene.

Washi, around six inches shorter, leaned on him from a higher step, trying to comprehend the sheer amount of broken items scattered across the floor.

Kazu bent over slightly to pick at a cracked wall beam just as Washi put more weight against him. They toppled over and Kazu's back hit the floor with a thud, Washi landing heavily on his torso.

Kazu groaned and turned his head, only to come face-to-face with a giggling Tomoko.

The hilarity of the situation hit Kazu, and Washi rolled off of him with a snort. Deki emerged halfway from a pile of fishing nets, and Kaida materialized from the shadowy corners with an unconscious Yumi in her arms.

"Get this shit off of me," Deki groaned. "All I do is try to help when Yumi has a fighting dream, and I lose feeling in my legs."

Washi bumped Kazu with his shoulder. "Help the poor bastard."

Kazu nudged him back. "You do it."

They paused.

"Tomoko?" they suggested in unison.

Their answer was a loud yawn.

"Fuck that, we've got an hour. I'm napping."

Picking herself off the wooden floor, Tomoko plodded to Deki and nestled herself in among the nets at his left, throwing her arm across his stomach.

Washi and Kazu shrugged, helping each other up, and they both dove into the pile with a protesting grunt from Deki.

Kaida gently laid her teammate between Deki and Tomoko, who cradled Yumi's head in the crook of her bandage-wrapped right arm.

Kiri's weapons mistress seated herself by Washi's head, and he rolled away, lying partially on Kazu once again.

Deki pulled himself closer to Yumi, and Tomoko leaned into Washi's side, resting her head on Kazu's shoulder.

And so they rested, as Washi was lulled to sleep by Tomoko's low humming and Yumi's slow breaths, by Deki's reassuring presence and Kazu's steady heartbeat as Kaida stood sentinel, watching over the group of her family of comrades.


	7. Chapter 7

7

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><p>Squads Twelve and Thirteen had just entered Konoha when a seven-year-old clad in orange shoved them aside with a shout.<p>

A look, and Tomoko's chakra stirred up the dirt of the road, carving a pothole that the miscreant stumbled over. Washi picked him up by the collar of his dust-stained white shirt.

Deki fixed him with a cold glare.

"What was up with that?" Yumi demanded, approaching the child with a hand twitching toward her tools pouch.

Washi gave him a shake. "Answer her."

Tomoko shook her head. "Calm down, you asshole. What's your name?" she asked neutrally.

"S-Seymour."

"What?"

The boy seemed to gather up his courage before continuing with a grin, "Butz. Seymour Butz. B-U-T-Z. Butz."

He looked infuriatingly pleased with himself, so Washi tightened his grip on the worn shirt, effectively conveying the threat if the delinquent's frightened expression was anything to go by.

A group of chūnin burst through the crowd and gaped.

"Yours?" Yumi called, jerking a thumb at the troublemaker.

Dumbly, the chūnin shook their heads.

"Right," Yumi muttered. "Come along, then."

Washi tossed the kid over to Tomoko, who threw him over her shoulder and restrained his kicking legs with an arm.

"W-wait!" a voice called, and a frazzled chūnin with brown hair in a slipping ponytail ran after them.

He bowed apologetically, straightening up with a nervous chuckle and rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Please excuse us," he said. "Naruto can be a little… rambunctious."

"Just keep him out of the way next time," Tomoko advised. "He might run into someone who will pull out a sword first and ask questions of whatever remains."

The man nodded energetically as Tomoko handed over the wriggling child. Once in the safety of the man's arms, Naruto stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry, and before he could blink, he felt a rush of wind and the kiss of metal at his neck and between his eyes.

He blinked.

Kaida took a step back, flipping the kunai around and holding it carefully by the wrong side, handing it back to its owner.

To his credit, the man accepted the kunai gracefully and slid it back into its proper pouch, watching with interest as Kaida put the dagger back within the seal tattooed to her forearm.

Naruto swiftly retracted his tongue at a look from the chūnin, and the pair retreated.

Deki grunted, "Walk."

The two squads continued down the street until Washi spotted a decent-looking inn. They rented two adjoining rooms with their mission budget and purchased sandwiches out of their own pockets.

Used to living out of storage scrolls and packs, the two Mist teams did not bother to unpack, instead working out schedules for the days leading up to the first event of the Chūnin Exams. They planned out a training timetable that allowed for individual, squad, and joint-squad training. The schedule even included the heavily advertised free karaoke night as a convenient opportunity to study the competition.

After establishing the schedule, the six Kiri nin split up for reconnaissance and to scope out some possible contenders.

Deki took the high road, traveling by rooftop to survey the village's layout and to make some inferences about the population's general composition.

None of the civilians looked up in interest or curiosity, and Deki recalled that Konohagakure was a village known for its cohesive civilian-shinobi relationship. Though political relations remained somewhat strained, the civilian and shinobi populations coexisted quite cooperatively.

The village was centered around the Hokage Tower, the shinobi central command, further demonstrating the society's heavy dependence on the shinobi aspect of the town. Yet shinobi and civilians walked the same streets, conversing as genin, chūnin, and jōnin alike browsed dry goods and bought groceries in full uniform from clamoring civilian vendors.

It was a stark contrast to Kiri, where civilians traveled the streets silently and shinobi rarely descended from the mist-obscured rooftops.

Taking a seat within a tea shop located near the center of the marketplace, Deki ordered a cup of green tea and settled in to listen to the hundreds of strains of gossip present on a bustling Konohan street, both audible and mental.

While Deki and Kaida went to the roofs to look upon Konoha as a whole, the other four Mist genin went by road to mingle with the crowds.

Yumi, who typically wore her metal plate insignia around her neck, relocated it to her thigh, a much less noticeable place.

Though they started as a group, Kazu and Washi soon split off to search for quality shinobi supply stores and affordable food vendors, respectively. Tomoko and Yumi continued on to "shop" at stores with particularly chatty customers and staff.

The two kunoichi stumbled across a shop owned by a retired shinobi. The elderly woman made custom kimonos and yukatas. The girls seized upon the opportunity and ordered a yukata for each member in their team. Tomoko supplied the measurements while Yumi decided the cloth and style. Then they separated as Tomoko spotted Deki in the tea shop and decided to join him.

Yumi continued on down the street and neatly sidestepped a rather preoccupied man with wide green eyes. She felt the approaching chakra as Tomoko appeared next to her.

"Something felt wrong," Tomoko explained.

"He had a strange sort of chakra signature. Almost like it was blank, without any sort of personality," Yumi agreed.

"No, strange as in he was surrounded by a sphere of chakra like a genjutsu."

Yumi frowned. "He did seem rather preoccupied. I don't think he even saw me."

"He was studying the crowd, the way I saw it," Tomoko replied.

"Gray shorts, black t-shirt?"

Tomoko nodded. "Black hair in a ponytail?"

"Yeah, and bright green eyes."

"Gray," Tomoko disagreed, "but Deki said the same as you."

The kunoichi shared a bemused glance before getting caught up in a crowd of scantily clad Konoha genin, apparently delegated for some investigation of their own.

Yumi eyed up the shirtless boys and miniskirt-wearing girls and shook her head. Letting her voice carry, she exclaimed, "Nisi's got those ah-_may_-zing washboard abs from his taijutsu training. He just needs a tan in this hot sun and he won't _need_ a barrage to knock the competition _sense_less."

Laughing, Tomoko nudged Yumi away. Once there was some distance between them and the Leaf genin, she hissed, "What the hell was that?" at her blue-haired best friend.

Yumi shrugged. "Not a bad idea to spread around a couple of rumors."

"What about Washi? He's on your official squad."

"But he doesn't have washboard abs," Yumi replied innocently.

Tomoko rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

The two kunoichi returned to the inn and, upon hearing cheers from the next room, checked in on the others.

Kazu and Washi were playing a card game while Deki and Kaida studied the village's layout according to a tourist map, plotting points of interest that the two boys playing cards had discovered.

Tomoko and Yumi joined the card game at the start of the next round, and the free-for-all soon turned into a battle of the sexes.

The fifth time Washi "accidentally" smacked Kazu across the face, the taijutsu user tackled his curly-haired game partner. The two boys quickly engaged in a rolling wrestling match.

Tomoko and Yumi laughed so hard they could barely breathe, much less sit up properly.

Kaida and Deki simply watched approvingly. The life of a Kiri shinobi was serious and fraught with dire consequences for frivolities such as relaxation and horseplay.

Squads Twelve and Thirteen had needed this retreat for a very long time, and they were bound and determined to make the most of it.


	8. Chapter 8

8

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><p>Dawn broke and Kaida sat up, wiping the sleep from her eyes and studying the light blue walls of the room. In the solitude of the early morning, she rolled from her bed and bent over the only other bed in the room, removing Deki's glasses just as he started to roll over.<p>

Then she entered the lounge area, shared by the two rooms they'd rented, with the intent of relocating her teammates.

Tomoko and Yumi were asleep, slumped together over the table they used to play cards. Kaida carried them one by one to the bed she awoke in, covering them both with a light blanket. Tomoko shifted slightly and Yumi murmured something about fog, but the two kunoichi remained asleep, secure in the presence of familiar chakra.

Kazu and Washi were absent from the lounge, but upon entering the second bedroom, wallpapered a creamy yellow and originally meant for the girls, she found them sleeping in the same bed.

Wondering if she should separate them or let them wake up as they were, she stepped further into the room to let Deki in.

Team Thirteen's strategist ran a hand through his sleep-mussed hair, adjusting his glasses. He smirked and shook his head, exiting the room.

Kaida followed after him, leaving the door open behind her. She went to the bathroom connected to the blue bedroom and washed up, showering quickly and changing into a fresh set of clothes. When she opened the door, drying her hair with a towel, steam billowed out around her. Deki was seated at the kitchen table, fresh out of the bathroom attached to the room where Kazu and Washi were still sleeping. Kaida sat down next to him, subconsciously pressing a hand over her heart.

"Does it ever hurt?" Deki murmured.

Kaida shook her head, lowering her hand to the table.

"Not anymore."

"I'm not talking about the seal," he replied.

"Neither am I," said Kaida.

Deki nodded once, and the room was quiet. He raised a hand and rubbed the patch of skin behind his ear, the softer skin below his skull scarred with puncture wounds arranged in a circular pattern.

"Does it hurt at all?" Kaida asked.

"Only sometimes."

Kaida smirked crookedly. "I wasn't talking about your neck."

"Neither was I."

In terms of scarred and battered teams, Squads Twelve and Thirteen were quite healthy and whole. The fact that they were alive at all was testament to their determination to thrive and the incredible strength of team unity.

Despite their physical wellbeing, each member of both squads carried a knotted scar in mind or spirit.

The effects of Deki, Yumi, and Washi's scars were subjects of study even in the gray morning hours of the day they left Kiri. Their accidents were common knowledge among the citizens of their village, and even still, civilian and shinobi mothers alike nudged their children to the opposite side of the streets when any of the three genin passed by. They were infamous for their unmedicated outbursts, and suffered continually from the events of that dark week.

Kaida knew of Kazu and Tomoko's scars as well. It came with the role of the nearly silent, mediating presence in the two squads.

Nisi Kazuyuki thought himself responsible for the death of his younger sister.

Tomoko, likewise, blamed herself for her own sister's death. An older sister, though, by the name of Riku Momoka. Momoka, Tomoko, and Minoru were tightly-knit siblings until the night that Momoka died. Tomoko never was the same after that.

Kaida knew all of these things, but the one aspect of each story that she could not comprehend was the emotional aspect.

Her own story had killed off any sense of empathy other than what was strictly practical.

Perhaps it had to do with the knot of scar tissue in her own soul.

Sou Kaida, of the Sou clan that specialized in death. Trained by her assassin father and bounty hunting uncle, Kaida learned the art of killing.

The final trial she faced was a test as the only female of her generation. The matriarchical Sou family carried a tradition of strong women, and it was Kaida's role to lead the next.

To unlock her full potential, her mother and aunt woke her up in the colorless hours after dusk, took her out to the courtyard, and had her watch as first her father, then her uncle, were ritually executed with the heirloom katana that was to be hers.

As her mother knelt down and presented her with the katana, still dripping with the blood of the only true family she'd ever had, Kaida let her emotions, for the first and last time, take control.

In the time between the execution and dawn, Kaida massacred her entire clan.

She collapsed in the carnage and awoke with a limiting seal over her heart.

Few emotions could trickle out, and the scar in Kaida's soul let her become the perfect warrior, another remorseless killer to carry on the Sou legacy.

And yet Kaida remained in her seat at the kitchen table as Deki deliberately reached his hand out to rest on hers, feeling the warmth from his skin penetrate no further than the surface.

In the next room, Tomoko's chakra flickered to consciousness and Deki withdrew, taking up vigilance at the entrance to the yellow bedroom. Tomoko stumbled through the doorway of the blue room, yawning as she stretched.

Deki smirked, sending Tomoko to find a camera. Rifling through Yumi's things, Tomoko found one with a roll of film already inside.

At the sound of her belongings being moved, Yumi stirred, rubbing her eyes as she crossed the lounge area to find the source of noise.

Tomoko took a number of pictures, marveling as the two shinobi stayed deeply asleep, even with the loud snap of the camera's flash.

Yumi stepped into the lounge to laugh and returned with an orb of water suspended above her hand.

She counted aloud, further testing the boys' determination to stay asleep.

"Three. Two. One."

The water dropped with unerring accuracy, and the two boys jolted awake with screeches. Another round of shouts followed at the sight of their bedmate.

Washi refused to leave the bathroom and Kazu carefullly avoided eye contact while Yumi cooked breakfast.

Kaida left with Deki to clarify training ground policies, and they came through the window just as Washi finally exited the bathroom and Yumi set out the utensils.

Seated at the table, the six Kiri-nin ate miso soup and rice. As they finished up, Deki and Kaida each handed an itinerary to their respective team-leader.

Tomoko nodded in approval and passed the paper to Kazu.

Yumi frowned and crossed out a line, wrote something in its place, and then slid the sheet across the table for Washi's perusal.

The teams were to train separately until the karaoke event in the evening, and so they parted ways after breakfast.

Squad Thirteen left immediately, Deki leading the way to their designated training area.

Washi waited impatiently for Yumi to finish her preparations.

"Oi, Yumi, what the hell is taking you so long?" he called through the bathroom door.

"Do you want to come in and see?" Yumi challenged, turning on the sink faucet to demonstrate the availability of water.

"I don't want to risk seeing anything," Washi retorted, rolling his eyes. "My sight is pretty important to me, you know."

"Is that so?"

The faucet turned off with a note of finality and the doorknob twisted and creaked open slowly. Washi took a step back, then another, seeking refuge behind the coffee table.

Yumi stepped out and Washi shrieked instinctively, covering his eyes with his hands. He peeked between his fingers reluctantly at the sound of Yumi's laughter.

"You're a thirteen-year-old boy, you moron. I'm just showing you what's taking so long."

Typically, Yumi, dressed in layers—as did most Kiri-nin, her teammates included. Over her underclothes and a base layer of chest bindings, knee- and ankle-wraps and bandages around her left wrist, she wore a ninja mail 3/4-sleeve and tight-fitting black shorts. On top of those, she wore a light blue half-sleeve top and a white skirt, slit up both sides for increased mobility. Around her right thigh she strapped on her tools pouch, and her scroll pouch went around her waist. Wrapped up in the bandages around her wrist were small, thin, flat capsules of water for emergency use. Over everything she usually wore a sleeveless blue jacket, belted at the waist. At the moment, she was holding it up to show Washi its contents.

Pockets layered the inside, filled with slim tools of all sorts. Lock picking wires, exploding tags, miniature senbon needles and packets of chakra pills.

Yumi pulled on the jacket, gingerly picking up the belt—similarly equipped—and cinched it just under her bust. The cloth moved naturally, despite its contents.

"It's hard to get everything placed correctly," Yumi explained, tying her forehead protector loosely around her neck.

Kaida rapped on the glass of the patio door and gestured for them to follow her out.

"Duty calls," Washi quipped with a shrug.

By the time they reached the practice field (eight minutes, only because Washi "fell" off the roofs twice), he had already earned three new bruises and a cut lip. His chakra played beneath and on the surface of his skin, its burning energy searing the wounds shut and knitting the skin back together.

"I would say sorry, except I'm not," Yumi snarked, beginning her circuit of pre-training stretches.

Kaida shrugged off her pack, rooting through the scrolls for her sharpening stone.

"Haven't you sharpened that enough already?" Washi groaned, joining Yumi in a quadricep stretch.

"No," Kaida replied.

Of course, what she meant was that she'd had to use it again since the last time she'd sharpened it. Team Leader Yumi did not question it, so neither did Washi.

Yumi finished her stretching and helped Washi to his feet. Taking a few steps back, she settled into a stable defensive stance.

"No jutsus?" Washi clarified, and Yumi nodded. "No weapons either," he added, laying out his own terms for the spar.

Kaida pulled the smooth stone down the side of the blade edge.

_Shiink_. One

_Shiink_. Two.

_Shiink_. Three.

Washi took a running start and launched himself above Yumi, hands resting heavily on her shoulders and holding on.

Yumi wrapped her hands around his wrists, bending her knees and lowering her center of gravity.

Washi's feet separated, one keeping balance and the other preparing and providing momentum for landing.

Yumi leaned more heavily on her left foot, pushing off into a smooth turn.

Washi adjusted his body accordingly, letting himself hang parallel to the ground to make spinning more difficult for Yumi.

Yumi launched Washi from her shoulders, and he slid across the ground on two feet and a hand.

_Shiink_.

Kaida paid little attention to her teammates, who were almost exactly matched in hand-to-hand. Washi was a bit quicker, but Yumi was a bit stronger. Washi had faster reflexes, Yumi had a faster mental processing speed. They could regulate themselves.

_Shiink_.

No, there was something in the underbrush that was afraid to make its presence known. A chakra manipulator, but not skilled enough to mask chakra, only to hide it, make all traces disappear completely. There was a distinct and tell-tale _lack_ of chakra where the individual stood.

_Shiink_.

A low-level shinobi, then. Female, judging from the size and shape, likely a genin for the same reasons.

_Shiink_.

Yumi had Washi pressed to the ground in a headlock. Washi conceded defeat.

_Shiink_.

They helped each other up and the figure moved closer.

Kaida put down the whetstone and stood.

A figure emerged from the bushes. Long brown hair. Fair skin. Khaki jacket and tan shorts. Pale violet eyes with no pupils.

"You're leaking chakra," she said. A Hyūga, then. "You there, boy. You're leaking chakra."

Yumi still clasped his hand in hers, and Washi ignored the blistering as Yumi's fingers absorbed chakra at a faster pace than his skin could handle. She slowly, deliberately released Washi's hand, watching the Hyūga suspiciously.

"Hyūga Chinatsū," she introduced, holding a hand out to Kaida. Kaida took it after a moment's deliberation, giving it a firm, strong shake.

"Sou Kaida."

"You're all invited to have lunch with the other genin of Konoha," the Hyūga informed them, stiffly. "You don't have to come. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, but the offer is there nonetheless."

Kaida looked at her blankly.

"You don't have to decide now. Just show up if you decide to come. Don't show up if you don't."

Kaida's continued blank expression left the Hyūga girl-child feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

"Is there a problem?" she questioned haughtily and Kaida waited a moment more before slowly shaking her head.

"Don't get your feet wet," she said instead. "Your chakra circulation is poor in your legs because so much is travelling upward. I don't believe you will be able to fix the balance, so don't get your feet wet."

Chinatsū stared at her in absolute shock for a moment before turning her head with an offended toss of her hair. She left without so much as a "goodbye," neck tense with frustration and back straight with pride.


End file.
